Rich Herrin in his early days as SIU coach leads a lot of Southern Illinois legends into their induction into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame (Southern Illinoisan File Photo)
Christopher Z-R box…around the BDC West
January 11, 2017 By Leave a Comment
CHRISTOPHER- The Christopher Bearcats Race out to a 39-17 lead, and goes on to defeat Zeigler-Royalton 77-41.
Gabe Schimpf led the Bearcats with 18 points on the night, Kaeleb Pedigo had 15, Bradley Young added 15 and Jared Curry was the fourth from Christopher in double figures with 14. The Bearcats sank 11 threes on the night.
Austin Bollinger and Brendan Whiting led the Tornadoes on the night with nine points each.
Christopher improves to (10-4) on the season and (3-0) in the Black Diamond West. Z-R falls to (1-9) on the season and (0-4) in the BDC West.
Both teams will be on the road Friday night as the Tornadoes go to Sesser-Valier to take on the Red Devils. The Bearcats will head to Johnson County to take on Coach Todd Tripp’s Goreville Blackcats. (The Southern Illinoisan story from the game will be posted on franklincounty-news.com shortly)
Around the conference, Jordan Myerhoff scored 19 points as Trico pulled a big upset over Vienna 59-42. Brandon Casey led the Eagles with 16 points in a losing cause. Chester beat New Athens 59-42 last night in the opening round of the Chester Invitational. Savion Smith led the Yellow Jackets with 17 points.
The undefeated Sesser-Valier-Waltonville Lady Red Devils cracked the class 2A Statewide poll at number 8 this week. -sd
BOX SCORE:
CHRISTOPHER: (77) Schimpf 4 3 1-1 18; Pedigo 1 4 2-2 16; Young 7 0 1-4 15; Curry 4 2 0-0 14; Snell 1 1 0-0 5; Dunford 0 1 0-0 3; Motsinger 1 0 0-0 2; Sanders 1 0 0-0 2
ZEIGLER-ROYALTON (41) Whiting 1 1 4-5 9; Bollinger 4 0 1-2 9; Domenick 2 1 0-0 7; Anderson 1 1 3-3 7; Imhoff 1 0 0-0 3; Newton 1 0 0-0 2
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CHRISTOPHER (10-4)(3-0) 22 17 15 23 – 77
ZEIGLER-ROYALTON (1-9)(0-4) 2 15 6 18 – 41
Ice for late Thursday night and into Friday.
January 11, 2017 By Leave a Comment
We are sitting on the fence on this in Franklin County. Ice is very tricky to forecast. Forecast models are very confident there will be significant icing northwest of us. There will be a model below by KFVS-12 meteorologist Brian Alworth posted this morning on social media. On his page. It is noteworthy by here in Franklin County we are in the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice range. However, the Southern Seven counties are expecting mostly rain. Honestly, I think it is wise to be prepared for the worse case scenario.
Franklin County is in the quarter to a half inch range. (KFVS-TV Photo)
Here is the quote from Alworth, “We are still studying the threat of freezing rain in the Heartland early Friday. This sort of system is difficult for forecast models to handle. We are expecting a very shallow layer of cold air to blow in from the north Thursday night into Friday morning…with surface air temps across our northern counties just below freezing. Meanwhile just a few hundred feet up we’ll still have warmer air…so that precip will fall as rain and freeze on contact especially on raised surfaces.”
“Models with greater resolution (more layers in the vertical) handle this sort of scenario better…and today we’ll start to get data from these shorter-term models.”
Here is the Hazardous Weather Outlook put out by the National Weather Service of Paducah KY for Franklin County,
.DAY ONE…TODAY AND TONIGHT A FEW ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE TODAY AND TONIGHT.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE ON THURSDAY. FREEZING RAIN AND A GLAZE OF ICE ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI…SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND SOUTHWEST INDIANA FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH EARLY FRIDAY EVENING. SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL AMOUNTS COULD OCCUR SATURDAY THROUGH TUESDAY.
HOWEVER…THE EVENT WILL BE SPREAD OUT OVER SEVERAL DAYS. THIS WILL LIKELY RESULT IN STANDING WATER IN LOW LYING AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS…ALONG WITH POSSIBLE RISES IN SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS.
Here is a link to the seven day forecast for Franklin County
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=176&map.y=89&site=pah&zmx=1&zmy=1#.WHZePdQrJxA
This is a situation that needs to be taken serious. We have not had the possibility of ice in the forecast like this in several years. I think the “bread and milk” run might be warranted over the next few days.
The B meteorologist student in two whole classes can see anything happening. If we receive half-inch of ice, and we are not going anywhere. Make sure you have adequate supplies to survive without power for several hours.
Franklincountynews-com will keep releasing things from media sources on the Facebook page throughout the day. When any watches are warnings is issued, we will post as a news story.
School-business closings will be updated frequently.
Main Street in WF Closed at the tracks
January 11, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Union Pacific crews working on the railroad crossing on East Main Street in West Frankfort (Jeff Webb photo)
Union Pacific has completed the work on the crossing on South Main (Route 37) in Benton. It has been open to traffic since yesterday afternoon.
Main Street in West Frankfort (Route 149) is now closed for repair of the railroad crossing. It will be completed before 7:00 p.m. tomorrow evening, weather permitting.
Franklin County Boys Basketball Preveiw 1/10/17
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
by Steve Dunford-
There are three games on tap involving four county schools tonight, two in the Black Diamond and one in the River-To-River Ohio division. There will be full coverage of West Frankfort-Murphysboro (if it is not coming a flood at game time) and Goreville-Sesser-Valier from the blackcatsnewtork.com feed. Any information that I could receive from Christopher and Z-R, I would appreciate it.
ZEIGLER-ROYALTON (1-8)(0-3) at CHRISTOPHER (9-4)(2-0)
The two football co-op partners and the two schools that are three miles apart meet up for a Black Diamond Conference game at “The Cave” tonight. Friday night the Tornadoes gave Vienna all they wanted in a 57-42 loss. Christopher pulled away from the foul line late in a 59-48 win against Hamilton County.
Kaeleb Pedigo and Brendan Whiting can both shoot the lights out. Steven Anderson is just a good all around athlete. It helps Z-R with
an inside presence that Austin Bollinger.
It is going to be very tough for several teams to have an answer for the three prong attack of Pedigo, Jared Curry and Bradley Young. One of three will give Z-R problems. I am going with Christopher by 15.
MURPHYSBORO (9-3)(2-0) vs WEST FRANKFORT(6-6) (2-3)
West Frankfort crossed over to the Mississippi Division and picked up a 54-39 victory over Sparta on Saturday night. Murphysboro beat SIRR Ohio conference foe Harrisburg 56-41 Friday night.
Muprysboro coach Daryl Murphy expects a “Deliberate style of offense in the form of (Former West Frankfort and McLeansboro Coach David) Lee.”
Here is what West Frankfort Coach Kevin Toney had to say about tonight’s game, “I’m really looking forward to playing Murphysboro at home. We have great fans that support us on the road who have seen us win a few recently, but we’d like to get another win at The Max…especially before the Mid-Winter.”
“I really can see a fair amount of improvement in our players and
the folks who have seen us throughout season can see that improvement, too. I hope we can continue that improvement.”
The Redbirds can hang with anyone in the SIRR Ohio this year. They hung around with Herrin until deep in the game on Friday night. I think Gatson, Gibbs, Martshon, and the rest of that Red Devil bunch that will come up from Jackson County will be too much for the Redbirds. I am going with Murpysboro by 10.
SESSER-VALIER (6-8)(2-2) at GOREVILLE (9-3)(2-0)
Normally the Devils biggest plus is their bench. The last several times I have watched the Blackcats, they have went nine deep.
I have been playing how these teams matchup in my mind. The combination of Tyler Winchester/Preston Launius are two hybrids both are 3/4’s with Winchester slipping in the back court a lot. You might as well call Brant Glidwell a three. I have to give the edge to Glidwell there.
Jamie Lance and Mavis Helton can beat and bang each other to 
death on the inside. Both are very physical and this old post player likes to see them play down low. The Devils will have to worry about Tanner Dunn as they do not have that second post player that is pretty physical. Seth Boles could see a lot of minutes to counteract.
I have to give the edge to Goreville in the back court too. Braden Webb has been on an unreal tear. Lukas Gunter is in the top five 1A point guards in the South, but Webb and Seth Ramsey of Gallatin County is in a league of their own. I can see coach Todd Tripp employing that 1-3-1 trap to take the 22 footer away from Charlie Farmer.
I am not dissing the Red Devils by no means. They can play with anyone of the northern part of the 1A Regional-Sectional complex in Southern Illinois. Goreville is clicking on all eight cylinders. I am going with the Blackcats by 8. In all honesty, I believe Christopher is in some real trouble going down there Friday night.
Ally Gischer tops 1,000 points in her Rangerette career
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Steve Dunford
BENTON- Rangerette guard Ally Gischer eclipsed the 1,000 point mark as Benton fell to a very good Herrin Lady Tiger club, 42-30 last night at Rich Herrin Gym.
Ally Gisher, along with Coach Andy Sloan after last night’s win
Ally Gisher said, “She was super excited to achieve the milestone. I was not a big scorer when I entered into high school, and I worked hard in improving my part of the game.”
She had this to say about Rangerette Coach Andy Sloan. “He has the perfect balance of giving instruction, and being approachable when you need to. I could not imagine playing for anyone else.”
Gischer led the Rangerettes with 12 points, Alexis Abney added nine on the night and Kaylee Pedigo added seven.
Hannah Grotauge led Herrin with 12 points on the night. I think it is very noteworthy of the Rangerette defense that she was held to 12.
The Rangerettes are in action Thursday night at home in an intra -division SIRR game against DuQuoin
BOX SCORE:
BENTON (30) Gischer 2 2 2-2 12; Abney 3 0 3-4 9; Pedigo 3 0 1-3 7; Carlton 1 0 0-0 2; Casey 0 0 0-0 0; Milby 0 0 0-0 0; Darr 0 0 0-0 0; Wilcox 0 0 0-0 0; Zinzeletta 0 0 0-0 0; Johnson 0 0 0-0 0
HERRIN (42) Grotauge 4 0 3-6 11; Smothers 2 0 4-7 8; Mad. Russell 3 0 0-0 6; Deaton 1 0 0-0 5 Linehoff 1 0 2-2 2
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BENTON 7 10 7 6 – 30
HERRIN 8 13 8 13 – 42
Resolve (Isaiah 50:7) from SIFCA director Roger Lipe
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Have you ever known a competitor who seems to have an unbending will to win? One he set his mind on his goal, he would not waiver from it for anything. Perhaps you’re like that. Many of the greatest competitors are.In Isaiah’s book of prophecy at chapter 50 and verse 5 we read about such an attitude of resolve, “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.”
Some of us are so committed to our goals that, on game day, our faces look like they’re carved out of stone. Our resolve is so strong that we’re unfazed by outside noises or distractions.
Though he was exposed to possible disgrace and shame, Isaiah pressed on in the pursuit of his goals. He did so because he had a profound trust in God and sensed His help day to day.
As you compete today and as you press toward the completion of this season, set your face like a flint. Focus strongly on your team’s goals and let nothing deter you from their fulfillment. Trust in your teammates, your coaching staff and ultimately in your God to help you in this marvelous pursuit.
U.S. Small-Business Optimism Index Surges by Most Since 1980
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Jeff Sessions Rejects Charges He Holds Racist Views
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions in meetings with President Elect Donald Trump (Jerusalem Post photo)
Bullying prevention
January 10, 2017 By Leave a Comment
